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140-722: The annexation of the Leeward Islands (French: Annexion des îles Sous-le-vent ) or the Leewards War (French: Guerre des îles Sous-le-vent ) was a series of diplomatic and armed conflicts between the French Third Republic and the native kingdoms of Raiatea - Tahaa , Huahine and Bora Bora , which resulted in the conquest of the Leeward Islands , in the South Pacific archipelago of

280-679: A president to serve as head of state. Calls for the re-establishment of the monarchy dominated the tenures of the first two presidents, Adolphe Thiers and Patrice de MacMahon , but growing support for the republican form of government among the French populace and a series of republican presidents in the 1880s gradually quashed prospects of a monarchical restoration. The Third Republic established many French colonial possessions , including French Indochina , French Madagascar , French Polynesia , and large territories in West Africa during

420-497: A 10-year sentence, but Dreyfus was given a pardon and set free. Eventually all the accusations against him were demonstrated to be baseless, and in 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated and re-instated as a major in the French Army. From 1894 to 1906, the scandal divided France deeply and lastingly into two opposing camps: the pro-Army "anti-Dreyfusards" composed of conservatives, Catholic traditionalists and monarchists who generally lost

560-425: A French credit merchant, had served up to three million customers and was affiliated with La Samaritaine , a large French department store established in 1870 by a former Bon Marché executive. The French gloried in the national prestige brought by the great Parisian stores. The great writer Émile Zola (1840–1902) set his novel Au Bonheur des Dames (1882–83) in the typical department store. Zola represented it as

700-541: A French expeditionary force was defeated on Huahine by Queen Teriitaria II in January 18 and 19, 1846. On February 7, 1847, Queen Pōmare IV returned from her exile and acquiesced to rule under the protectorate government centered in Papeete . Although victorious, the French were unable to annex the islands due to diplomatic pressure from Great Britain, so Tahiti and its dependency of Moorea continued to be ruled under

840-436: A French resident administrator. Teraupo'o , a lesser chief of Raiatea known for his fierce opposition to the French, refused to comply with the order of King Tamatoa VI to surrender to them and built up a resistance force. The following year, King Tamatoa VI, originally from the royal family of Huahine, abdicated to avoid being used by the French and returned to Huahine to become a tāvana . In his place, Teraupo'o led

980-578: A code of missionary obedience made up of 25 articles inspired by the code of Tahiti (the Pomare code) and providing for the modes of application of justice. The same year, Chief Mai introduced this code of laws to Bora Bora and extended it to Maupiti. In 1822, the Church of Bora-Bora was inaugurated in Vaitape, in the district of Nunue. At the end of the 1820s, a large part of the population of Bora Bora joined

1120-433: A consumer version of the public square. It educated workers to approach shopping as an exciting social activity, not just a routine exercise in obtaining necessities, just as the bourgeoisie did at the famous department stores in the central city. Like the bourgeois stores, it helped transform consumption from a business transaction into a direct relationship between consumer and sought-after goods. Its advertisements promised

1260-479: A daily circulation of about 100,000 and Le Petit Meridional had about 70,000. Advertising only filled 20% or so of the pages. The Roman Catholic Assumptionist order revolutionized pressure group media by its national newspaper La Croix . It vigorously advocated for traditional Catholicism while at the same time innovating with the most modern technology and distribution systems, with regional editions tailored to local taste. Secularists and Republicans recognized

1400-572: A decisive defeat for the Boulangists. They were defeated by the changes in the electoral laws that prevented Boulanger from running in multiple constituencies; by the government's aggressive opposition; and by the absence of the general himself, in self-imposed exile with his mistress. The fall of Boulanger severely undermined the conservative and royalist elements within France; they would not recover until 1940. Revisionist scholars have argued that

1540-626: A failed attempt to build the Panama Canal . Plagued by disease, death, inefficiency, and widespread corruption, and its troubles covered up by bribed French officials, the Panama Canal Company went bankrupt. Its stock became worthless, and ordinary investors lost close to a billion francs. France lagged behind Bismarckian Germany, as well as Great Britain and Ireland, in developing a welfare state with public health, unemployment insurance and national old age pension plans. There

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1680-459: A few months, as radicals, socialists, liberals, conservatives, republicans and monarchists all fought for control. Some historians argue that the collapses were not important because they reflected minor changes in coalitions of many parties that routinely lost and gained a few allies. Consequently, the change of governments could be seen as little more than a series of ministerial reshuffles, with many individuals carrying forward from one government to

1820-449: A foregone conclusion" to foreign residents, but it met with the "determined opposition of more than three-fourths of the natives" on Huahine. The elderly queen Tehaapapa II and her son Prince-Regent Marama Teururai , who held the governmental position of Fa'aterehau or Prime Minister, accepted the French takeover. However, the anti-French forces rallied around Queen Teuhe , Marama's sister and former wife of Pōmare V, and set up

1960-469: A general decline of native populations after European contact. The native population of the Leeward Islands numbered around 5,000 to 6,000 people throughout much of the mid and late 19th century. In 1897, a census of the Leeward Islands recorded: 1,237 people on Huahine, 2,138 people on Raiatea, 1,099 people on Tahaa, 1,264 people on Bora Bora, and 536 on Maupiti. The more isolated Maiao had a sporadic population and numbered less than 100 people by 1871. The 1897

2100-568: A grandson of King Louis Philippe I , who replaced his cousin Charles X in 1830. The Bonapartists lost legitimacy due to the defeat of Napoléon III and were unable to advance the candidacy of any member of the Bonaparte family . Legitimists and Orléanists eventually agreed on the childless Comte de Chambord as king, with the Comte de Paris as his heir. This was the expected line of succession for

2240-580: A grandson of Pomare IV. Under the reign of Teriimaevarua III, the international situation changed. Indeed, the Jarnac Convention, guaranteed the independence of the Leeward Islands, only committed its two signatories, France and Great Britain. However, from 1878, Germany seemed to take a close interest in the Leeward Islands. In 1879, the Germans tried to forge alliances with Raiatea and Bora Bora. Both islands refused, and Teriimaevarua III informed

2380-521: A hostile manner toward the State ('Nobilissima Gallorum Gens' ). In 1892, he issued an encyclical advising French Catholics to rally to the Republic and defend the Church by participating in republican politics ('Au milieu des sollicitudes' ). The Liberal Action was founded in 1901 by Jacques Piou and Albert de Mun , former monarchists who switched to republicanism at the request of Pope Leo XIII . From

2520-460: A joint agreement signed between France and Great Britain in 1847. Continual instability in the native regimes and the growing threat of the nascent German colonial empire in the Pacific prompted France to declare the islands under a provisional protectorate in 1880, in violation of the 1847 Convention. In 1888, France and Britain agreed to abrogate their previous treaty and allow the French to annex

2660-594: A long time relatively preserved from the power struggles of the two European powers. However, their influence was felt, particularly through the evangelization of the island. In the 1810s, Chief Mai and 262 warriors joined Pomare II in his fight against the Teva clan. In 1815, the battle of Fe'i Pi in Punaauia (on the island of Tahiti) marked the victory of the Protestant party (Pomare II having converted in 1812) against

2800-502: A newspaper would blackmail a business by threatening to publish unfavorable information unless the business immediately started advertising in the paper. Foreign governments, especially Russia and Turkey, secretly paid the press hundreds of thousands of francs a year to guarantee favourable coverage of the bonds it was selling in Paris. When the real news was bad about Russia, as during its 1905 Revolution or during its war with Japan, it raised

2940-493: A parallel rebel government from 1888 to 1890. This civil war continued until the nationalist forces were defeated by the forces of Tehaapapa II. Cooper noted that "their Christianity under existing circumstances [was] nothing more than a name". He was banned from preaching for trying to prevent hostile native prayer-meetings for the defeat and destruction of the French. As the last the LMS missionary, Cooper left Huahine and care of

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3080-409: A pension by the colonial government. A French vice-resident and later a gendarme was placed in charge of the islands, but they retained native laws and government for a few more years. In an ironic gesture of defiance, the islanders appointed a blind man to the office of French flag raiser. In 1898 the former queen, Teriimaevarua III, attempted to incite a new resistance movement in the islands and

3220-576: A provisional government on 4 September 1870. The deputies then selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president. This first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris (19 September 1870 – 28 January 1871). As Paris was cut off from the rest of unoccupied France, the Minister of War Léon Gambetta succeeded in leaving Paris in a hot air balloon , and established

3360-571: A provisional government, ("head of the executive branch of the Republic pending a decision on the institutions of France"). The new government negotiated a peace settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire : the Treaty of Frankfurt signed on 10 May 1871. To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of financial laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities , to pay reparations. In Paris, resentment built against

3500-399: A public health law which began in the 1880s as a campaign to reorganize the nation's health services, to require the registration of infectious diseases, to mandate quarantines, and to improve the deficient health and housing legislation of 1850. However, the reformers met opposition from bureaucrats, politicians, and physicians. Because it was so threatening to so many interests, the proposal

3640-665: A quarter of the Parisian market and forced the rest to lower their prices. The main dailies employed their own journalists who competed for news flashes. All newspapers relied upon the Agence Havas (now Agence France-Presse ), a telegraphic news service with a network of reporters and contracts with Reuters to provide world service. The staid old papers retained their loyal clientele because of their concentration on serious political issues. While papers usually gave false circulation figures, Le Petit Provençal in 1913 probably had

3780-456: A request for French protection and hoisted the protectorate flag on 9 April 1880. Chessé was unable to convince Huahine and Bora Bora to sign similar agreements. The imposition of the French protectorate on the Leeward Islands was initially disavowed by the minister of foreign affairs, Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire , and the French government. Commercial groups in Hamburg and Berlin protested

3920-466: A rival royal government under Queen Teuhe to resist the pro-French factions under her brother Prince Marama Teururai . The resistance was strongest on Raiatea and Tahaa where the chief Teraupo'o and his followers entrenched themselves in the countryside and the mountains and sought British intervention in the war. The conflict ended with the violent suppression of the Raiatean rebellion and the exile of

4060-531: A series of elections in which he would resign his seat in the Chamber of Deputies and run again in another district. At the apogee of his popularity in January 1889, he posed the threat of a coup d'état and the establishment of a dictatorship. With his base of support in the working districts of Paris and other cities, plus rural traditionalist Catholics and royalists, he promoted an aggressive nationalism aimed against Germany. The elections of September 1889 marked

4200-582: A steady financial basis for publishing, but it did not cover all of the costs involved and had to be supplemented by secret subsidies from commercial interests that wanted favourable reporting. A new liberal press law of 1881 abandoned the restrictive practices that had been typical for a century. High-speed rotary Hoe presses , introduced in the 1860s, facilitated quick turnaround time and cheaper publication. New types of popular newspapers, especially Le Petit Journal , reached an audience more interested in diverse entertainment and gossip than hard news. It captured

4340-637: A strong League of Nations after the war, and the maintenance of peace through compulsory arbitration, controlled disarmament, economic sanctions, and perhaps an international military force. Followers of Léon Gambetta , such as Raymond Poincaré , who would become President of the Council in the 1920s, created the Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD), which became the main center-right party after World War I. Governing coalitions collapsed with regularity, rarely lasting more than

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4480-421: A symbol of the new technology that was both improving society and devouring it. The novel describes merchandising, management techniques, marketing, and consumerism. The Grands Magasins Dufayel was a huge department store with inexpensive prices built in 1890 in the northern part of Paris, where it reached a very large new customer base in the working class . In a neighbourhood with few public spaces, it provided

4620-480: A threat, and the queen asked for military assistance from the French on 14 January 1895. On 11 September 1895, the young queen and the native government formally ceded "forever and without reserve, the government of their country to France." Governor Pierre Papinaud accepted the cession and imposed a permanent administration on Huahine. Bora Bora and its dependencies were nominally annexed on 19 March 1888 by Governor Lacascade. Traditionally, Boraborans were regarded as

4760-578: A traditional alliance of the inter-related chiefly families of the Society Islands. Christianity spread to the remaining islands after his conversion. He held nominal suzerainty over the other Society Islands . This was later misinterpreted by Europeans as sovereignty or subjugation of the other islands to Tahiti. In the 1830s and 1840s, tensions between French naval interests, the British settlers and pro-British native chieftains on Tahiti led to

4900-621: A war against Raiatea and Huahine, which had remained loyal to the missionaries. Tapoa II, leader of the alliance and Grand Chief of Tahaa was however defeated, and his wife, Pomare IV, Queen of Tahiti, separated from him in 1834. He then settled in Bora Bora as Grand Chief of the island, at the request of the Mai and Tafaaora clans. Tapoa II, however, remained on good terms with Pomare IV, his ex-wife, and in 1845 he adopted one of her daughters, Teriimaevarua , whom he designated as heiress. When in 1842,

5040-462: Is therefore that Tapoa II reigned over an independent island until his death in 1860. On July 30, 1860, his adopted daughter Teriimaevarua II was crowned Queen of Bora Bora by Reverend Platt. She reigned over the island until her death in 1873. Teriimaevarua having no children, the crown then passed to her niece, Teriimaevarua III, daughter of Tamatoa V , king of Raiatea and granddaughter of Pomare IV. On January 9, 1884, she married Prince Hinoi, also

5180-523: The Action française , the movement declined from 1908, when it lost the support of Rome. Nevertheless, the ALP remained until 1914 the most important party on the right. Kingdom of Bora Bora The history of Bora Bora is marked by the rivalry of two clans: one based near Faanui , consisting of families attached to the marae Farerua, and the other consisting of the families of Nunue and Anau around

5320-642: The Paris Commune preceded the final defeat. The German Empire , proclaimed by the invaders in Palace of Versailles , annexed the French regions of Alsace (keeping the Territoire de Belfort ) and Lorraine (the northeastern part, i.e. present-day department of Moselle ). The early governments of the French Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but disagreement as to

5460-627: The Franco-Prussian War , until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France during World War II led to the formation of the Vichy government . The French Third Republic was a parliamentary republic . The early days of the French Third Republic were dominated by political disruption caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, which the French Third Republic continued to wage after the fall of Emperor Napoleon III in 1870. Social upheaval and

5600-477: The Franco-Tahitian War (1844–1847) and the voluntary exile of Queen Pōmare IV to Raiatea. Tahitian guerilla resistance on Tahiti was forcibly stamped out by the French administration with the capture of Fort Fautaua. Attempts to forcefully incorporate the neighbouring kingdoms of the Leeward Islands (west of Mo'orea ) ceased following increased diplomatic pressure from Great Britain, and after

5740-873: The French Shore off Newfoundland . The convention was finally abrogated in exchange for French military concessions in the New Hebrides . The Convention relating to the New Hebrides and the Leeward islands of Tahiti was signed at Paris on 16 November 1887 and the Declaration for the Abrogation of the Declaration of the 19th June, 1847, between Great Britain and France concerning the Islands to

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5880-523: The Indigénat system as hau tamaru ("protectorate government") in contrast with the hau farani ("French government"). Tahiti was not under the Indigénat system, but was ruled more directly by France under the French judicial system. The Native Code was not repealed until 1946. By 1901, with the annexation of the last independent monarchies of Rimatara and Rurutu in the Austral Islands,

6020-573: The Jesuits and Assumptionists —indoctrinated anti-republicanism into children. Determined to root this out, republicans insisted they needed control of the schools for France to achieve economic and militaristic progress. (Republicans felt one of the primary reasons for the German victory in 1870 was their superior education system.) The early anti-Catholic laws were largely the work of republican Jules Ferry in 1882. Religious instruction in all schools

6160-736: The Kingdom of Tahiti was placed under the protectorate of France, Bora Bora was not concerned, and the island did not suffer the troubles that would follow either. However, Bora Bora benefited from the fallout from the Pritchard affair, since, to put an end to the Franco-British quarrel, Louis Philippe ratified the Jarnac Convention of June 19, 1847, which recognized the independence of the Leeward Islands, including Bora Bora. The two great colonial powers undertook not to take possession of these islands, nor even to place them under protectorate. It

6300-538: The Leeward Islands in the northwest and Windward Islands or Georgian Islands in the southeast. The Windward Islands include Tahiti , Moorea , Mehetia , Tetiaroa and Maiao . Politically, the Kingdom of Tahiti comprised all the Windward Islands except Maiao and also held nominal sovereignty over the more distant Tuamotus archipelago and a few of the Austral Islands . By the mid-19th century

6440-604: The Maohi Protestant Church was later established to preserve the legacy of the indigenous and Protestant identity of the Society Islands. French Third Republic The French Third Republic ( French : Troisième République , sometimes written as La III République ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during

6580-471: The Scramble for Africa , all of them acquired during the last two decades of the 19th century. The early years of the 20th century were dominated by the Democratic Republican Alliance , which was originally conceived as a centre-left political alliance, but over time became the main centre-right party. The period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured sharply polarized politics, between

6720-538: The Society Islands in modern-day French Polynesia . This conflict was the last phase of armed indigenous resistance against French rule in the Society Islands, which began in 1843 with the forcible imposition of a protectorate over the Kingdom of Tahiti in the Franco-Tahitian War . The three Leeward Islands kingdoms to the northwest of Tahiti were ensured independence by the Jarnac Convention ,

6860-539: The anti-clerical middle class, who saw the Church's alliance with the monarchists as a political threat to republicanism, and a threat to the modern spirit of progress. The republicans detested the Church for its political and class affiliations; for them, the Church represented the Ancien Régime , a time in French history most republicans hoped was long behind them. The republicans were strengthened by Protestant and Jewish support. Numerous laws were passed to weaken

7000-463: The constitutional laws of the new republic . At its head was a President of the Republic. A two-chamber parliament consisting of a directly elected Chamber of Deputies and an indirectly elected Senate was created, along with a ministry under the President of the council ( prime minister ), who was nominally answerable to both the President of the Republic and the legislature. Throughout the 1870s,

7140-431: The corvette HMS Turquoise ordered French Lieutenant Félix Marie Salaun de Kertanguy , of the war schooner Orohéna , to lower the protectorate flag, and in its place the Raiatean flag was hoisted and accorded a royal salute. According to Guy Hardy Scholefield, "The French flag was permitted to be rehoisted provisionally on 25 May 1881, for periods of six months, the discussion being renewed from time to time." Tahitoe

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7280-457: The marae Vaiotaha, which was long among the most important marae of Polynesia. In this respect, Bora Bora is likewise marked by the rivalry with Raiatea in pursuit of religious power. Up to a certain period, a certain parallelism can be seen between the institutions of Bora Bora and Raiatea, which suggests that the two islands exercise joint religious and political authority over the other Leeward Islands . However, Raiatea ultimately became

7420-414: The ra'atira ("freeman") class. Local chiefs and district governors (tāvana) gained greater power and autonomy at the expense of the nominal island monarchs. On Huahine, the warrior queen Teriitaria II was deposed in 1852 and her successor Ari'imate was deposed in 1868. On Raiatea, King Tamatoa IV was deposed in 1853 and later recalled. His successor Tamatoa V of Raiatea was deposed for

7560-576: The 1870s "the form of government that divides France least"; however, politics under the Third Republic were sharply polarized. On the left stood reformist France, heir to the French Revolution . On the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Catholic Church , and the army. In spite of France's sharply divided electorate and persistent attempts to overthrow it, the Third Republic endured for 70 years, which makes it

7700-692: The 1878 Kanak rebellion in New Caledonia . In 1896, two French warships, the cruiser Duguay-Trouin and the transporter Aube arrived from New Caledonia with two hundred French soldiers to quell the native resistance under the command of Captain Charles Jessé Bayle and Captain Paul Louis Albert Chocheprat , respectively. The invasion force was reinforced further with a company of Tahitian volunteers. On 27 December 1896, Governor Gallet attempted to parley with

7840-450: The Army brought up additional charges against Dreyfus based on false documents. Word of the military court's attempts to frame Dreyfus began to spread, chiefly owing to the polemic J'accuse , a vehement open letter published on the liberal newspaper L'Aurore in January 1898 by the notable writer Émile Zola . Activists put pressure on the government to re-open the case. In 1899, Dreyfus

7980-517: The Boulangist movement more often represented elements of the radical left rather than the extreme right. Their work is part of an emerging consensus that France's radical right was formed in part during the Dreyfus era by men who had been Boulangist partisans of the radical left a decade earlier. The Panama scandals of 1892, regarded as the largest financial fraud of the 19th century, involved

8120-572: The British Protestant missionaries, established their rule over Tahiti and Moorea as part of the Kingdom of Tahiti. Western concepts of kingdoms and nation states were foreign to the native Tahitians or Maohi , people who were divided into loosely defined tribal units and districts before European contact. The first Christian king, Pōmare II headed the hau pahu rahi ("government of the great drum") or hau feti'i ("family government"),

8260-639: The Catholic Church. In 1879, priests were excluded from the administrative committees of hospitals and boards of charity; in 1880, new measures were directed against the religious congregations; from 1880 to 1890 came the substitution of lay women for nuns in many hospitals; in 1882, the Ferry school laws were passed. Napoleon's Concordat of 1801 continued in operation, but in 1881, the government cut off salaries to priests it disliked. Republicans feared that religious orders in control of schools—especially

8400-520: The Chamber and called for a new general election to be held the following October. He was subsequently accused by Republicans and their sympathizers of attempting a constitutional coup d'état, which he denied. The October elections again brought a Republican majority to the Chamber of Deputies, reiterating public opinion. The Republicans would go on to gain a majority in the Senate by January 1879, establishing dominance in both houses and effectively ending

8540-468: The Church's perspective, its mission was to express the political ideals and new social doctrines embodied in Leo's 1891 encyclical " Rerum Novarum ". Action libérale was the parliamentary group from which the ALP political party emerged, adding the word populaire ("popular") to signify this expansion. Membership was open to everyone, not just Catholics. It sought to gather all the "honest people" and to be

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8680-542: The Commune, was later elected President of the Republic in May 1873 and would hold the office until January 1879. A staunch Catholic conservative with Legitimist sympathies and a noted mistrust of secularists, de MacMahon grew to be increasingly at odds with the French parliament as liberal and secular republicans gained a legislative majority during his presidency. In February 1875, a series of parliamentary acts established

8820-578: The Comte de Chambord based on France's traditional rule of agnatic primogeniture if the renunciation of the Spanish Bourbons in the Peace of Utrecht was recognised. Consequently, in 1871 the throne was offered to the Comte de Chambord. Chambord believed the restored monarchy had to eliminate all traces of the Revolution (most famously including the tricolore ) , to restore unity between

8960-403: The Democratic Republican Alliance and the Radicals . The government fell less than a year after the outbreak of World War II, when Nazi forces occupied much of France , and was replaced by the rival governments of Charles de Gaulle 's Free France ( La France libre ) and Philippe Pétain 's French State ( L'État français ). During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial empire

9100-407: The French Establishment of Oceania was formed. The five archipelagoes of the Society Islands, the Tuamotus, Austral Islands, Gambier Islands and Marquesas Islands were incorporated into the territory of French Oceania, which are today part of the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia . The French Protestant missionaries helped to preserve the indigenous language and culture of the islanders and

9240-456: The French from entering the rural areas of Raiatea as the natives resorted to guerilla warfare. The Raiateans unsuccessfully appealed to Robert Teesdale Simons, the British consul in Tahiti, for assistance and offered their country to the " Great White Queen ". In 1895, Queen Tuarii traveled to the British protectorate Rarontonga to seek help from the British resident, Frederick Moss , who refused to meet with her. Attempts were made to mediate

9380-478: The French government of the German attempt. For France, it was becoming urgent to repeal the Jarnac Convention, in order to prevent the installation of a rival power at the gates of its colony, especially since with the expected opening of the Panama Canal , the position of the Society Islands would become strategic. To cope with German attempts, Raiatea and Tahaa also requested the protection of France in 1880. Between 1880 and 1887, these two islands were placed under

9520-407: The French in each succession crisis and the encroachment of other colonial powers. In 1858, the American consul in Raiatea unsuccessfully attempted to declare a protectorate over or annex Raiatea and Tahaa to the United States. In the late 1870s, there were worries that the German Empire would also incorporate the islands through annexation or a protectorate as part of its nascent colonial empire in

9660-403: The French protectorate. The Jarnac Convention or the Anglo-French Convention of 1847 was also signed by the French and the British, in which both powers agreed to respect the independence of Huahine, Raiatea, and Bora Bora. For the next four decades, the three northern kingdoms remained nominally independent from the French in Papeete and remained strongly pro-British because of the influence of

9800-444: The German Embassy in Paris and sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island in French Guiana (nicknamed la guillotine sèche , the dry guillotine), where he spent almost five years. Two years later, evidence came to light that identified a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the real spy. After high-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy. In response,

9940-450: The Interministerial Press Commission to supervise the press closely. A separate agency imposed tight censorship that led to blank spaces where news reports or editorials were disallowed. The dailies sometimes were limited to only two pages instead of the usual four, leading one satirical paper to try to report the war news in the same spirit: Regional newspapers flourished after 1900. However the Parisian newspapers were largely stagnant after

10080-403: The LMS missionaries who remained stationed on the islands. However, economic and political instabilities were continual threats. Although Bora Bora remained politically stable, decades of political unrest plagued the islands of Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa. The adoption of a British parliamentary system of government eroded the traditional supremacy of the ari'i rahi ("supreme rulers") in favor of

10220-596: The Leeward Islands was made up of three kingdoms: the Kingdom of Huahine and its dependency of Maiao (geographically part of the Windward Islands); the Kingdom of Raiatea - Tahaa , and the Kingdom of Bora Bora with its dependencies of Maupiti , Tupai , Maupihaa , Motu One , and Manuae . Tahiti was converted to Protestant Christianity by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the early 19th century. The Pōmare Dynasty , patrons of

10360-468: The Leeward Islands. From 1888 to 1897, the Leeward Island natives resisted the French while civil wars also broke out between pro-French factions and the majority anti-French sectors of the population. Armed conflict began in 1887 with the revolt of the chief Teraupo'o on Raiatea against the pro-French king and the shooting of a French officer and marines on Huahine. The natives of Huahine set up

10500-473: The Mamaia movement. This millennial movement, born on the island of Raiatea, merged old beliefs and new religion and challenges the authority of missionaries. When in 1826, the main leaders of the movement were banished from Raiatea, the heresy spread to all the Leeward Islands, including Bora Bora. The Mamaia sect gained such influence over Tahaa and Bora Bora that in 1833 the two islands joined forces to engage in

10640-612: The Pacific. The proposed Panama Canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific also increased the value of territorial claims in the Pacific. Huahine signed a treaty of friendship with Germany in May 1879, which was never ratified by the German government. On Tahiti, King Pōmare V abdicated on 29 June 1880 and the Tahitian kingdom was annexed to France. Internal warfare and introduced diseases, such as dysentery , scarlet fever , measles , whooping cough and typhoid , contributed to

10780-400: The Republic was finally governed by Moderate Republicans (pejoratively labelled "Opportunist Republicans" by Radical Republicans ) who supported moderate social and political changes to nurture the new regime, such as a purge of the civil service . The Jules Ferry laws making public education free, mandatory, and secular ( laїque ), were voted in 1881 and 1882, one of the first signs of

10920-611: The Republicans' rising popularity and limit their political influence through a series of actions known as le seize Mai . On 16 May 1877, de MacMahon forced the resignation of Moderate Republican prime minister Jules Simon and appointed the Orléanist Albert de Broglie to the office. The Chamber of Deputies declared the appointment illegitimate, exceeding the president's powers, and refused to cooperate with either de MacMahon or de Broglie. De MacMahon then dissolved

11060-573: The Society Islands to the missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in 1890. Queen Tehaapapa II and her government formally requested a French protectorate on 30 July 1890. The royal government of Huahine persisted for five more years and Tehaapapa II was succeeded by her granddaughter Tehaapapa III in 1893. Historian Pierre-Yves Toullelan noted that Huahine did not lay down its arms until 1894. The anti-French nationalist factions remained

11200-471: The Versailles government, marched on Paris and succeeded in dismantling the Commune during what would become known as The Bloody Week . The term ordre moral ("moral order") subsequently came to be applied to the budding Third Republic due to the perceived restoration of conservative policies and values following the suppression of the Commune. De MacMahon, his popularity bolstered by his victory over

11340-504: The actions of the French, but the British Foreign Office was less ambivalent, seeing a French takeover as a foregone conclusion, and was open to negotiations in exchange for French concessions. A provisional protectorate was established as France and Great Britain re-negotiated the details of the Jarnac Convention. Speculations included the French concessions in the Pacific or West Africa or the cession of fishing rights in

11480-668: The aftermath when the regime of Napoleon III collapsed, resulted in a monarchist majority in the French National Assembly that favoured a peace agreement with Prussia. Planning to restore the monarchy, the " Legitimists " in the National Assembly supported the candidacy of Henri, Comte de Chambord , alias "Henry V," grandson of King Charles X , the last king from the senior line of the Bourbon dynasty . The Orléanists supported Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris

11620-522: The ante to millions. During the World War, newspapers became more of a propaganda agency on behalf of the war effort and avoided critical commentary. They seldom reported the achievements of the Allies, crediting all the good news to the French army. In a sentence, the newspapers were not independent champions of the truth, but secretly paid advertisements for banking. The World War ended a golden era for

11760-516: The authority of Versailles, responding with the foundation of the Paris Commune in March. The principles underpinning the Commune were viewed as morally degenerate by French conservatives at large while the government at Versailles sought to maintain the tenuous post-war stability which it had established. In May, the regular French Armed Forces , under the command of Patrice de MacMahon and

11900-426: The center of religious power, while Bora-Bora retained a particularly strong military power, expressed both in internal wars and in wars with rival islands. According to Tupaia , Borabora was actually a place of exile for thieves and other wrongdoers. However, the outcasts eventually became pirates, attacking the other islands in kind. In the 18th century a great chief, Puni (Teihotu Matarua), succeeded in dominating

12040-529: The chiefs Mai and Tefaaora, originally of Nunue and Anau, and members of the marae of Vaiotaha. The first clear mention of the island was by the Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen in 1722. James Cook saw it in 1769 and landed there in 1777. While in Tahiti, the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century were marked by the missionary and colonial aims of France and England, Bora Bora remained for

12180-411: The conflict as la guerre de Raiatea-Tahaa . Pierre-Yves Toullelan, author of the article "Le colonialisme triomphant: Tahiti et la IIIe République" (1990), referred to the conflict as "la guerre des îles Sous-le-Vent". Alexandre Juster, author of L'histoire de la Polynésie française en 101 dates (2016), refers to the conflict as "la guerre des Iles sous le Vent". The Society Islands are subdivided into

12320-402: The conflict by Consul Simons and Tati Salmon , an Anglo-Tahitian businessman of royal descent. The French Protestant missionary Jean-Frédéric Vernier, former chaplain of Queen Pōmare IV, also attempted unsuccessfully to sway the natives. Pastor Gaston Brunel , who took charge of the Protestant schools on the island in 1894 and was largely sympathetic to the natives, often visited the camp of

12460-470: The conflict, the "Teraupo'o War" or the "War of Teraupo'o" after the Raiatean resistance leader Teraupo'o . French school teacher Paul Huguenin, who authored Raiatea La Sacrée , a 1902 book on Raiatea's history and traditions, referred to the conflict as the Conquête des Iles sous le Vent . Auguste Charles Eugène Caillot, author of Les Polynesiens Orientaux Au Contact de la Civilisation (1909), referred to

12600-399: The conflicts of Raiatea which prevented the French from administering their new acquisition until September 1895. Through the persuasion of her ex-husband Prince Hinoi, Queen Teriimaevarua III accepted French administration and formally abdicated on 21 September 1895. Retaining her honor as queen, she was allowed to collect tributes from the outlying northern islands and was provided with

12740-524: The day, especially striking young people in their twenties. Germany set up vigorous measures of public hygiene and public sanatoria, but France let private physicians handle the problem. The French medical profession guarded its prerogatives, and public health activists were not as well organized or as influential as in Germany, Britain or the United States. For example, there was a long battle over

12880-541: The end, it recruited mostly among the liberal-Catholics ( Jacques Piou ) and the Social Catholics ( Albert de Mun ). The ALP was drawn into battle from its very beginnings (its first steps coincided with the beginning of the Combes ministry and its anticlerical combat policy), as religious matters were at the heart of its preoccupations. It defended the Church in the name of liberty and common law. Fiercely fought by

13020-546: The exact percentage of population growth due to births versus immigration is hard to determine. Responding to the growing threat of Germany in the Pacific, the French took actions to abrogate the Convention of 1847 and bring the Leeward Islands into their sphere of influence. In 1880 French Commissioner Isidore Chessé convinced the islanders of the growing German threat and urged them to request for French protection. In Raiatea ( see below ), King Tahitoe and his chiefs signed

13160-537: The exciting complex interactions with the newest and most fashionable merchandise and upscale customers. Throughout the lifetime of the Third Republic (1870–1940), there were battles over the status of the Catholic Church in France among the republicans, monarchists and the authoritarians (such as the Napoleonists). The French clergy and bishops were closely associated with the monarchists and many of its hierarchy were from noble families. Republicans were based in

13300-563: The expanding civic powers of the Republic. From that time onward, the Catholic clergy lost control of public education. To discourage the monarchists, the French Crown Jewels were broken up and sold in 1885. Only a few crowns were kept, their precious gems replaced by coloured glass. In 1889, the Republic was rocked by a sudden political crisis precipitated by General Georges Boulanger . An enormously popular general, he won

13440-402: The first time in 1858 and again in 1871. The next king, Tahitoe , who was one of the district governors, was deposed in 1881 for aligning with the French. LMS missionary and acting British consul on Raiatea, Alexander Chisholm, declared, "The foolish people seem determined to prove to the whole world that they cannot govern themselves." Externally, the island governments feared intervention from

13580-464: The government from late March through May 1871. Paris workers and National Guards revolted and took power as the Paris Commune , which maintained a radical left-wing regime for two months until the Thiers government bloodily suppressed it in May 1871. The ensuing repression of the communards had disastrous consequences for the labour movement . The French legislative election of 1871 , held in

13720-514: The government which would come to evolve into the Third Republic. These representatives – predominantly conservative republicans – enacted a series of legislation which prompted resistance and outcry from radical and leftist elements of the republican movement. In Paris, a series of public altercations broke out between the Versailles-aligned Parisian government and the city's radical socialists. The radicals ultimately rejected

13860-519: The initiative to the anti-clerical, pro-republican "Dreyfusards", with strong support from intellectuals and teachers. It embittered French politics and facilitated the increasing influence of radical politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. The democratic political structure was supported by the proliferation of politicized newspapers. The circulation of the daily press in Paris went from 1 million in 1870 to 5 million in 1910; it later reached 6 million in 1939. Advertising grew rapidly, providing

14000-585: The island of Ua Huka in the Marquesas Islands , while others were conscripted as forced laborers to improve the roads of Raiatea. The natives resisted the French on Huahine. Governor Lacascade took possession and raised the French flag over Huahine on 16 March 1888. A week later, on 21 March, Captain La Guerre, of the Decrès , landed a small party of French marines to arrest insurgents on Huahine on

14140-400: The island's other clans. He then conquered Tahaa before attacking Raiatea , which he conquered in 1763 after a three-year campaign. In 1769, when James Cook landed at Tahaa and Raiatea, the islands were still dominated by Puni and his Borabora warriors. At Puni's death, his nephew Tapoa I , paramount chief of Bora Bora, Raiatea and Tahaa, settled at Raiatea, thus leaving local power to

14280-514: The islands and raised the flag of France on Huahine (16 March), Raiatea (17 March) and Bora Bora (19 March). The annexation was nominal and native autonomy and resistance continued on the islands for another decade. In 1880, King Tahitoe accepted the provisional protectorate by Chessé and raised the protectorate flag of Raiatea with the French tricolour on its canton . Captain Mervyn B. Medlycott of

14420-424: The issue of whether a monarchy should replace or oversee the republic dominated public debate. The elections of 1876 demonstrated strong public support for the increasingly anti-monarchist republican movement. A decisive Republican majority was elected to the Chamber of Deputies while the monarchist majority in the Senate was maintained by only one seat. President de MacMahon responded in May 1877, attempting to quell

14560-456: The leeward of Tahiti was signed at Paris on 30 May 1888. News of the change reached Papeete in the beginning of 1888, allowing the French annexation of the islands to commence. After the removal of this diplomatic obstacle, Governor Théodore Lacascade officially annexed all of the Leeward Islands on 16 March 1888 via proclamation. The Proclamation de Gouverneur aux habitant des Îles sous le Vent à l'occasion de l'annexion de ces îles à la France

14700-606: The longest-lasting system of government in France since the collapse of the Ancien Régime in 1789. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France and the overthrow of Emperor Napoleon III and his Second French Empire . After Napoleon's capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan (1 September 1870), Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as

14840-419: The melting pot sought by Leo XIII where Catholics and moderate Republicans would unite to support a policy of tolerance and social progress. Its motto summarized its program: "Liberty for all; equality before the law; better conditions for the workers." However, the "old republicans" were few, and it did not manage to regroup all Catholics, as it was shunned by monarchists, Christian democrats, and Integrists . In

14980-482: The monarchy and the nation. Compromise on this was impossible, Chambord believed, if the nation were to be made whole again. The general population, however, was unwilling to abandon the Tricolour flag. Monarchists therefore resigned themselves to delay the monarchy until the death of the ageing, childless Chambord, then to offer the throne to his more liberal heir, the Comte de Paris. A "temporary" republican government

15120-718: The most warlike people of the archipelago. LMS missionary William Edward Richards wrote in 1888 that the Boraborans "were strongly opposed to the [French] flag, and it was feared that blood would be shed" but that they wisely appreciated their weakness and lack of "mountain strongholds", and "gradually settl[ed] down with bad grace into the inevitable". The islands were also recovering from a recent civil war between Bora Bora and secessionist forces in Maupiti in 1876. Toullelan noted that Bora Bora did not lay down its arms until 1894 but provided no details. Bora Bora remained neutral during

15260-519: The mountains to escape capture. The armed native resistance ended with the capture of the leading chief, Teraupo'o, on 15–16 February 1897. The casualties of the six-week campaign were nearly fifty deaths mainly on the side of the Raiateans. The captured resistance leaders, including Teraupo'o, his wife, his brother and lieutenant Hupe, the chiefess Mai of Tevaitoa and six other men, were deported to Nouméa , New Caledonia. Their followers were exiled to

15400-436: The native resistance against the French and installed a resistance government under Tuarii (a younger daughter of Tahitoe) as queen at Avera . The French established themselves at the former capital of Uturoa and appointed a résident , Marie Maximilien Gustave Alby . The French also had the support of the chief Tavana , a former minister of Tamatoa who held the title of viceroy of Raiatea-Tahaa. A prolonged war prevented

15540-437: The nature of that monarchy and the rightful occupant of the throne could not be resolved. Consequently, the French Third Republic, originally envisioned as a provisional government , instead became the permanent form of government of France. The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic. It consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and

15680-532: The newspaper as their greatest enemy, especially when it took the lead in attacking Dreyfus as a traitor and stirring up anti-Semitism. After Dreyfus was pardoned, the Radical government closed down the entire Assumptionist order and its newspaper in 1900. Banks secretly paid certain newspapers to promote particular financial interests and hide or cover up misbehaviour. They also took payments for favourable notices in news articles of commercial products. Sometimes,

15820-432: The next, often in the same posts. The Dreyfus affair was a major political scandal that convulsed France from 1894 until its resolution in 1906, and then had reverberations for decades more. The conduct of the affair has become a modern and universal symbol of injustice. It remains one of the most striking examples of a complex miscarriage of justice in which a central role was played by the press and public opinion. At issue

15960-431: The opportunity to participate in the newest, most fashionable consumerism at reasonable cost. The latest technology was featured, such as cinemas and exhibits of inventions like X-ray machines (that could be used to fit shoes) and the gramophone . Increasingly after 1870, the stores' work force became feminized , opening up prestigious job opportunities for young women. Despite the low pay and long hours, they enjoyed

16100-436: The populations of Tahiti and Moorea were around 10,000 and 1,500 respectively and had decreased in the same period between the 1880s and 1890s. Australian demographer Norma McArthur noted that: "If a mission estimate (Cooper, 1884b) of 'about 5,500' people in the Leeward Islands in 1884 was reasonable, the population had increased by nearly 1,000 by 1897, and this represents an average annual increase of about 1½ percent." However,

16240-468: The potential for a monarchist restoration. De MacMahon himself resigned on 30 January 1879 to be succeeded by the moderate Republican Jules Grévy . He promised that he would not use his presidential power of dissolution, and therefore lost his control over the legislature, effectively creating a parliamentary system that would be maintained until the end of the Third Republic. Following the 16 May crisis in 1877, Legitimists were pushed out of power, and

16380-452: The press. Their younger staff members were drafted, and male replacements could not be found (female journalists were not considered suitable). Rail transportation was rationed and less paper and ink came in, and fewer copies could be shipped out. Inflation raised the price of newsprint, which was always in short supply. The cover price went up, circulation fell and many of the 242 dailies published outside Paris closed down. The government set up

16520-513: The provisional protectorate of France. First of all, the chiefs and the Queen of Bora Bora declared themselves ready to accept the French protectorate, subject to a British agreement, then showed themselves hostile to a questioning of their independence by France. Meanwhile, France and England were negotiating the repeal of the Jarnac Convention. It was done in October 1887, and with the annexation of

16660-458: The provisional republican government in the city of Tours on the Loire river. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, and national elections were called to elect a new French government. French territories occupied by Prussia at the time did not participate. The resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers head of

16800-607: The rebels in 1897. The conflict has been referred to by a variety of names. Historian John Dumore referred to the conflict as the "Leewards War" in 1997. Historian Matt K. Matsuda noted in Empire of Love: Histories of France and the Pacific , "Struggles in Huahine, Bora Bora, and Raiatea continued over decades as the 'Leewards War,' little remembered in French Pacific scholarship." The Historical Dictionary of Polynesia called

16940-427: The rebels to avoid bloodshed. He set an ultimatum for the rebels to surrender by 1 January 1897. The rebel government at Avera under Queen Tuarii and 1,700 rebels reluctantly surrendered. Teraupo'o and the rebels of Tahaa and the district of Tevaitoa refused the call, prompting the French to land and engage the remaining armed natives. The French routed the under-equipped and disorganized native forces and many fled into

17080-430: The resistance leader and gained valuable insight into the rebellion. French artist Paul Gauguin , who witnessed the final phase of the rebellion, noted that diplomacy failed to persuade the natives of Raiatea to surrender. Gauguin also witnessed the 1896 expedition to Raiatea. The French appointed Governor Gustave Gallet to defeat the entrenched rebellion by military force. Gallet had previous experience with suppressing

17220-418: The roles of railroads, republican schools, and universal military conscription . He based his findings on school records, migration patterns, military service documents and economic trends. Weber argued that until 1900 or so a sense of French nationhood was weak in the provinces. Weber then looked at how the policies of the Third Republic created a sense of French nationality in rural areas. Weber's scholarship

17360-503: The traditionalist party. Christianity thus became the religion of the victors, and on their return to Bora Bora in 1816, the warriors shared their knowledge of this new religion with the rest of the population. The success was such that in 1818, the inhabitants asked the missionaries of Moorea and Huahine for books and pastors for the island. Reverend Orsmond came there for the first time the same year, and settled in Bora Bora in 1820. On May 12, 1820, Tamatoa III, head of Raiatea, put in place

17500-469: The war. The major postwar success story was Paris Soir , which lacked any political agenda and was dedicated to providing a mix of sensational reporting to aid circulation and serious articles to build prestige. By 1939, its circulation was over 1.7 million, double that of its nearest rival the tabloid Le Petit Parisien . In addition to its daily paper, Paris Soir sponsored a highly successful women's magazine Marie-Claire . Another magazine, Match ,

17640-425: The way back to Tahiti. In retaliation, the natives killed the ship's ensign Louis Dénot, who was leading the detachment, and two marines and wounded five others. This marked the first bloodshed in the war of the Leeward Islands since Lacascade's annexation. Ebenezer Vicessimus Cooper , the last LMS missionary in the Society Islands, was an observer of the conflict. He noted that the French acquisition had "long been

17780-471: Was an accident insurance law for workers in 1898, and in 1910, France created a national pension plan. Unlike Germany or Britain, the programs were much smaller – for example, pensions were a voluntary plan. Historian Timothy Smith finds French fears of national public assistance programs were grounded in a widespread disdain for the English Poor Law . Tuberculosis was the most dreaded disease of

17920-655: Was blatant anti-Semitism as practised by the French Army and defended by conservatives and Catholic traditionalists against secular centre-left, left and republican forces, including most Jews. In the end, the latter triumphed. The affair began in November 1894 with the conviction for treason of Captain Alfred Dreyfus , a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent . He was sentenced to life imprisonment for communicating French military secrets to

18060-431: Was debated and postponed for 20 years before becoming law in 1902. Implementation finally came when the government realized that contagious diseases had a national security impact in weakening military recruits, and keeping the population growth rate well below Germany's. There is no evidence to suggest than French life expectancy was lower than that of Germany. The most important party of the early 20th century in France

18200-424: Was deposed by his subjects for requesting the protectorate. His daughter and successor, Queen Tehauroa , unsuccessfully attempted to enlist the protection of the British to preserve Raiatea's independence in accordance with the Jarnac Convention. On 17 March 1888, Governor Lacascade took possession of Raiatea and Tahaa and raised the French flag. On 25 September 1887, five chiefs of Raiatea petitioned Papeete to send

18340-595: Was done without documents of cession from the former sovereign government of the islands. Lacascade traveled to the Leeward Islands to proclaim the annexation. The mission was accompanied by the French naval warship Decrès , under the command of Captain Alfred Charles Marie La Guerre , and the schooner Aorai , under the command of Captain Louis Marie Reux . Lacascade with other French officials and naval officers took possessions of

18480-697: Was exiled to Tahaa by the order Governor Gallet on 27 October 1898. After the capture of Teraupo'o, the Chamber of Deputies in Paris proclaimed "the victorious end of the last military campaign in our islands". The Chamber ratified annexation on 19 November 1897. The Code de l'indigénat or Native Code was imposed by the French to administer the Leeward Islanders as French subjects rather than French citizens . Native courts and judges were retained, except with regard to land legislation. European residents were tried under French law. The natives referred to

18620-491: Was forbidden, and religious orders were forbidden to teach in them. Funds were appropriated from religious schools to build more state schools. Later in the century, other laws passed by Ferry's successors further weakened the Church's position in French society. Civil marriage became compulsory, divorce was introduced, and chaplains were removed from the army. When Leo XIII became pope in 1878, he tried to calm Church-State relations. In 1884, he told French bishops not to act in

18760-500: Was modelled on the photojournalism of the American magazine Life. France was a rural nation, and the peasant farmer was the typical French citizen. In his seminal book Peasants into Frenchmen (1976), historian Eugen Weber traced the modernization of French villages and argued that rural France went from backward and isolated to modern with a sense of national identity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He emphasized

18900-458: Was returned to France for another trial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (now called "Dreyfusards"), such as Anatole France , Henri Poincaré and Georges Clemenceau , and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as Édouard Drumont , the director and publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper La Libre Parole . The new trial resulted in another conviction and

19040-408: Was stability. The workers' demands for strikes threatened such stability and pushed many Radicals toward conservatism. It opposed women's suffrage for fear that women would vote for its opponents or for candidates endorsed by the Catholic Church. It favoured a progressive income tax, economic equality, expanded educational opportunities and cooperatives in domestic policy. In foreign policy, it favoured

19180-692: Was the Radical Party , founded in 1901 as the "Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party" ("Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste"). It was classically liberal in political orientation and opposed the monarchists and clerical elements on the one hand, and the Socialists on the other. Many members had been recruited by the Freemasons. The Radicals were split between activists who called for state intervention to achieve economic and social equality and conservatives whose first priority

19320-492: Was the second largest colonial empire in the world only behind the British Empire ; it extended over 13,500,000 km (5,200,000 sq mi) of land at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. In terms of population however, on the eve of World War II, France and its colonial possessions totaled only 150 million inhabitants, compared with 330 million for British India alone. Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in

19460-554: Was therefore established. Chambord lived on until 1883, but by that time, enthusiasm for a monarchy had faded, and the Comte de Paris was never offered the French throne. Following the French surrender to Prussia in January 1871, concluding the Franco-Prussian War , the transitional Government of National Defence established a new seat of government at Versailles due to the encirclement of Paris by Prussian forces. New representatives were elected in February of that year, constituting

19600-408: Was widely praised, but was criticized by some who argued that a sense of Frenchness existed in the provinces before 1870. Aristide Boucicaut founded Le Bon Marché in Paris in 1838, and by 1852 it offered a wide variety of goods in "departments inside one building." Goods were sold at fixed prices, with guarantees that allowed exchanges and refunds. By the end of the 19th century, Georges Dufayel ,

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